First Corinthians: One Unified Team
by G.S. Augustine
Talent Without Teamwork
The 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers boasted one of the most legendary line-ups in NBA history. In addition to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers signed Carl Malone, Gary Paton and power forward Horace Grant. They were the instant favorites to win the NBA title that year. But they failed to achieve the goal. Though they ended the season with a 56-25 record and eventually made it to the finals as the odds on favorite, they lost to the Detroit Pistons in five games. Sports writers saw it as a historic collapse.
They had a couple distractions, sure. Malone struggled with injuries and Kobe Bryant fought sexual assault case in a Colorado court room during the season, but ultimately it came down to the fact that the team just didn’t work well as a team. Kobe and Shaq had an ongoing feud that reached fever pitch in the middle of the season. Team members criticized each other in the press. And on the court, Paton struggled with Phil Jacksons triangle offense and wasn’t in sync with his teammates.
The Pistons were nearly the opposite. Despite not having the star lineup of the Lakers, their strong defense and incredible team synergy handily defeated the star studded Lakers. What they lacked in top tier talent, they made up in teamwork and made short work of the series. There have been many sad examples of this story throughout sports history. Great talent can rarely make up for poor unity and teamwork.
Church Unity and The Gospel
When it comes to the church, unity isn’t just necessary tool for success, but the very center of its existence. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul brings up several issues plaguing the church. However, the issue behind the “issues” is that divisions are rampant. Paul addresses each problem as directly undermining the unity necessary for a group of people to claim the status of a church of Jesus Christ.
On the night before he died, Jesus told his disciples that oneness among them would be the key to carrying out the commission he gave them to make disciples of all nations.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray for those who will believe in me through their message, the all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:20-21 emphasis mine.)
Divisions: Paul’s Reason for Writing Them
But the church in Corinth was anything but “one” as a group. They developed divisions among them based on which charismatic personalities or teachers they favored. And this lead to in-fighting.
My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul, another “I follow Apollos,” another, “I follow Cephas,” and still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 1 Corinthians 1:11-13
This divisiveness from Paul’s point of view threatens the entire existence of the church not just in Corinth but through all the world. This is why the early church would adopt the moniker “catholic” meaning universal. Maintaining a unified church would be a priority for the 1500 years. Admittedly, unity at all costs lead to unacceptable compromises, but it doesn’t mean that striving for unity should be abandoned.
Do We Mimic the World?
It does call into question our modern willingness to divide our assembles over any theological nuance whether its from the Reformers or the latest popular preacher. No matter what positive contributions they make, they also open the door to schism. Not only the habit of churches splitting over every doctrinal variance but believers leaving churches for the latest exciting thing.
When I worked a waiter at the Hyatt in Chicago, employees celebrated staff birthdays at the latest “hot” bar. The place would be so jammed you couldn’t walk through it without constantly brushing up against someone. However, they’d hold the next birthday celebration at a different “hot” bar. The previous one would be near closing due to lack of business. There is something wrong when believers treat churches the same way.
Unity: Paul’s Overarching Concern
Unity is so important to Paul that it shows up in virtually every topic he introduces in the letter. In 1:18-2:5 Paul refutes the idea that Christ faith has any connection to the “wisdom of this age” partly because even in Paul’s day, there was hostile divisions among schools of philosophy. Besides being pagan, worldly unity along philosophical lines is impossible. The acrimony between Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum was well known. So wanting to distance himself from anything like that, Paul focused his message solely on Christ:
When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (2:1-2)
Paul’s point is that every believer’s faith should rest on God’s power, not on man’s wisdom—even if that man is Paul or Apollos or Peter. And when believers divide themselves up according to Christian leaders, they mimic pagans by showing themselves immature and worldly—or as Paul puts it “mere men.”
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not ready for it … For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says “I follow Paul” and another says “I follow Apollos” are you not mere men? (3:1-4)
Leaders Can Be All Talk
Paul points out that Paul and Apollos were only servants who planted and watered. Only God causes things to grow (3:5-15). And this is how every member of the body should see themselves and their leaders (3:16-4:17). Any other approach endangers unity.
But those who boast are only full of talk. True kingdom servants focus the faith of others on God and his power and have learned to access it themselves. That requires humility and fosters unity. Talkers who base their claims on men become arrogant and cause divisions:
Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (4:18-20)
Division by Tolerating Immorality
In chapter 5 Paul speaks of the man who has an immoral relationship with his father’s wife. This may seem as though Paul has left the issue of unity for a new topic. However on closer inspection we see this is not really true. Paul’s complaint isn’t so much about the man who has committed the offense (though he wants it resolved!), but the church’s failure to do something about it. Letting this issue go threatens the unity of the church.
Several things in the text suggest this. Their collective identity as a moral community separate from the world is endangered if they tolerate immorality that even pagans don’t endorse (5:1). When they assemble together in the (one) name of Jesus Christ, Paul is with them in spirit hinting at the unity of all believers even if they aren’t present (5:5). Paul states that immorality is like yeast that works through the whole batch of dough (5:6). And that Christians are to collectively judge other believers if they are openly immoral.
Failure to address gross immorality will lead to church disintegration. Believers who are appalled by it will want to distance themselves from the body. Pagans who strongly disapprove recoil from it. Either the church stands together with their values or fall apart by ignoring the breach of them.
Division By Lawsuits
Christians taking each other to pagan courts obviously also threatens unity (6:1-11). Unity is so important that Paul suggests we should rather be “wronged” than take a brother or sister to court before unbelievers. However, we should also be able to settle disputes peaceably in submission to wise loving leadership. If wise and loving leadership is unavailable for handling small matters, how will they handle their responsibilities in the coming Kingdom of God (6:3)?
Unity by Choosing the Path of Peace
Even his discussion of sexual immorality (6:12-20) and marriage (7:1-40) has unity we have with Christ in the background. Since the sexually immoral are excluded from the kingdom later, we as a people should be able to judge that now (6:9). In the mean time, if married to an unbeliever who is willing stay, one shouldn’t seek to separate. If they want to leave, let them leave. Why? “God has called us to live in peace” (7:15). Believer shouldn’t try too hard to change their station in life. It’s disruptive and can interfere with “undivided devotion to the Lord” (7:35). The point of all these topics is to help believers in Corinth live together in peace in the service of Christ.
Unity Through Sacrificing Privilege
The following discussion on food sacrificed to idols in chapters 8-10 has maintaining unity as its underlying principle. Chapter 8 centers around looking out for weaker brothers and sisters so not to harm their relationship with Christ. Paul encourages willingness to sacrifice out of love for each other. We maintain unity in the body by such love.
In chapter 9 Paul uses his willingness to preach the gospel for free as an example of that very love (9:1-18). He then shows his willingness to become all things to all men rather than point out his differences (9:19-27). Again anything he can do to facilitate oneness.
In Chapter 10, Paul says the people under Moses as a unit participated in idolatry. With only a couple exceptions they all were denied the land of promise. He reiterates that we are all one body because “we partake of one loaf” (10:17). So we should not let our freedom, which we truly have in Christ, become something that harms someone (10:23-11:1). For to do so, is to act contrary to our own interests. Therefore Paul concludes with this principle.
Do not cause anyone to stumble whether Jews or Greeks for the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. I am not seeking my own good but the good of many so they may be saved. (10:32-33)
Unity By Maintaining Lines of Authority
Chapter 11 has a controversial section on head coverings for women. I have discussed this passage at some length (see: “Head Coverings”). But briefly here, Paul has some specific commands about men and women that have both a first century cultural experience and a continuing principle for the church. Paul’s wants the church to maintain cultural practices that prevent outsiders from slandering the church and insiders from tearing it apart. He is concerned that the churches have a consistent unified practice:
If anyone wants to bee contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God. (11:16).
But there is more here to Paul’s argument than just culture. There is an abiding principle that all churches throughout all ages must follow. We can never obliterate the biblical distinctions between men and women, their roles in the church and the order of authority God established in the home. The way we do this in the twenty-first century is not the same as the way they did it in the first century. But by whatever means we acknowledge it, we must maintain God’s arrangement of men’s and women’s roles in every age.
Proper Observance Of Lord’s Supper
The rest of chapter 11 concerns the Corinthian believers sorry observance of the Lord’s table. Paul condemns their practice because it humiliates poor members of the body while pandering to indulgence of rich members (11:20-22). His statement that we should not participate in communion in an “unworthy manner” (11:27) and that we should “examine ourselves”(11:28) refers directly to “recognizing this body of the Lord” (11:29).
Most preachers limit this reference to Jesus physical body. Though the context does invoke the physical body of Jesus, it more accurately refers to the church for whom Jesus sacrificed his body. Failure to acknowledge this and care for people for whom Christ died results in judgement that can lead to sickness and even death. Paul has already said:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy and you are that temple. (3:16-17)
When churches call Christians to “evaluate themselves” before taking communion, it is more proper to direct them to their relationships with people in the church. In fact, it might be counter productive to direct worshippers to focus on personal sins here. Communion is a time to focus on Christ instead. We don’t “clean ourselves up” to come to Christ. We come as we are and let Christ clean us. As we turn to communion with Christ and in communion with each other, it is the Holy Spirit who will draw our attention to behaviors that need correction. But broken relationships in the body are another story.
There is a principle that Christ speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount that seems appropriate.
Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother, then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)
The High Summit of the Letter
This leads us to the high point of Paul’s discussion on unity. Mt. Everest is the highest peak in the Himalayan range, but it is not the only high summit. In this first Corinthian letter there are two high peaks. The highest is Chapters 12-14, but almost as high is Paul’s discussion in chapter 15 on resurrection. But even there unity of the body is not far out of sight.
Paul begins traversing this high summit by giving instructions on spiritual gifts (12:1-11). In truth, spiritual gifts are likely the central feature of the Corinthians enthusiasm for their faith. In the very first paragraph of the body of the letter, Paul thanks God for their giftedness:
For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—because our testimony about Christ has been confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed (1:4-7).
Gifts Can Unify or Divide
This is both a good thing and a concerning thing. The emphasis on individual giftedness also allows for the divisions, jealousy and quarrels that Paul is admonishing them about. Though there are many powerful gifts the Spirit may give them, there is only one Spirit (12:4). The gifts the Spirit gives are for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. And it is the same one Spirit that is working all of the gifts in all the people.
When someone uses a their influence to divide the body or alienate people from Christ, you can be sure he is not operating in the Spirit of God (12:3).
Everyone Has a Gift!
Paul states that the Spirit of God gives to each believer a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The implication of this is significant. It means a church must leave room for everyone in the body to contribute to the ministry. The pattern where a single person teaches all the time and the whole congregation sits, soaks and sours needs re-evaluation. This will become more clear when we get to chapter 14.
But Paul emphasizes this further in chapter 12 by using the human body as a metaphor:
If the foot should say to the hand, “Because I’m not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it would not cease to be part of the body. If the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts but one body. (12:15-20)
Taking Into Account Different Gifts
How many people in our churches now say, “Because I’m not a pastor, I can’t do much for ministry.” In the Baptist world, members are pushed to share the gospel and invite unbelievers to church. This of course is a good thing for believers to engage in. However should we favor, say, the “good conversationalist” gift (the mouth?) over the quiet gift of mercy (the ear?)?
A person who isn’t a “mouth” may feel he or she isn’t part of great commission. Or worse, feel guilty they are designed for “listening” rather than “talking.” Leaders need to learn to help the ear be an ear without making them feel guilty they aren’t a mouth.
The Tacit “We Don’t Need You”
Additionally our emphasis on certain gifts can tacitly make leaders disregard members who don’t have those particular gifts. Paul addresses this tendency next.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. (12:21-23)
Eugene Peterson humorously points out the obvious when looking at this. He translates v. 23-24:
If anything you are more concerned for the lower parts of the body than for the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you rather have good digestion to full head of hair? (The Message)
Helping People Want Unity
Paul is squarely focusing his concern on loving unity in the body. When each member sees themselves as indispensable and everyone as indispensable, we recognize that working against one another is counter to our own interests. We are then less likely to act in divisive ways. And God made it that way for this purpose.
But God has combined the members of the body and has give greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (12:24-25 emphasis mine).
The More Excellent Way
Paul ends chapter 12 by identifying several gifts and points out that not everyone has the same gift. But he then encourages them to “eagerly desire the greater gifts” (12:31). This is a bit enigmatic. What are these “greater” gifts? Paul doesn’t say directly. He does speak, however, about a more excellent way—the way of love. We now move into one of the most well known chapters of the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13.
Love That Never Fails
He states the all the visible “sign” gifts—like speaking in tongues, prophesy, faith to enact powerful miracles or even the courage to sacrifice greatly—are all without profit if love isn’t driving them. Since everybody usually has their own ideas about love, Paul defines it biblically in verses 4-8. Biblical love focuses on the welfare of others over and above self. There are those who say that to love others well you must first love yourself. This is not what Paul or the Bible is saying. Paul points out that we see only a fraction of reality and what we do see is blurry. God is fully capable of taking care of me and one day I’ll realize this:
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (13:12-13 emphasis mine)
“Love always protects, always trusts, always hope, always perseveres” (13:5). Unity in the body comes when each part can look out for the welfare of other parts and leave their own welfare up to God. If all of us are looking out for each other rather than ourselves, every part is being looked after. When I decide I can’t trust God for that, unity in the body is weakened.
How To Conduct Community Worship
With the definition of love as the ruling principle of the body, Paul moves on to how to conduct church meetings together in an unified orderly fashion. (Here is an antidote to the disorder they created in chapter 11 in observing the Lord’s Table.) He first suggests that believers emphasize the gifts that build up the body as they conduct their meetings. (Here is a insight to what he means by “the greater gifts”). He particularly points to prophesy over speaking in tongues.
Tongues does edify the speaker but not the rest of the body. Prophesy on the other hand edifies the whole body (14:1-12). Here prophesy refers not so much to “foretelling” but “forth-telling.” Forth-telling reveals God’s will and desires. This can come through teaching scripture. But sometimes God reveals practical applications of the Scriptures to individual members through the Holy Spirit.
Interactive Participation
In the services that Paul imagines, there isn’t one person standing at podium while everyone else sits and nods their heads. Chapter 14 pictures strong participation in the service by all the members:
When you come together, everyone has a hymn or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church … Two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 14:26, 29
How this can be done in a large congregation would take creativity. And it may not be practical in every service. But there should be space made occasionally for members to use their gifts in church services. Also an interactive style of teaching drawing out in a question-answer format can achieve this. It can even work in a large crowd with roaming microphones. I think worshippers would find themselves more engaged in the teaching. And the rest of us might discover insights that had not occurred to us.
There doesn’t exclude the sermon style preaching since Paul is known for speaking to a crowd till sometimes a person falls asleep (Acts 20:7-12)! But it certainly does suggest that this shouldn’t be the only method, and maybe it shouldn’t even be the predominant method.
Resurrection: The Second Peak
Chapter 15 becomes the second high peak in the Corinthian mountain range. Though the main topic is the resurrection of Christ, unity of the body is still in view.
Paul reminds believes there of what the gospel he brought to them consisted of—that Christ died for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead. And all this was “according to the Scriptures” (15:3-4) and was witnessed by hundreds of people (15:5-11). There is no other gospel and only if we hold to it firmly is our belief profitable. We are all brought to this unity under the one and only gospel about the one and only Lord who not only died but has been the one and only person to rise from he dead.
Aberrant Teaching Refuted
Paul refutes an aberrant teaching among the Corinthians that there is no resurrection. This teaching rejects one of the main tenants of the gospel. Without it, Christianity becomes pointless and the church would end up disbanding to “eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (15:32).
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men (15:19)
Although the church today doesn’t deny the resurrection, the focus of most western believers is to go to heaven when we die. This emphasis takes away the power and hope of the gospel. Paul shows why the resurrection is central to faith and what it will accomplish (15:20-28). He explains why resurrection is reasonable by comparing it to nature (15:35-49—much insight can be drawn from these verses as to why “death” is necessary for salvation. It also hints at why the eternally unsaved can never enter Christ’s kingdom simply because death is no longer impossible).
Lastly, Paul declares a glorious mystery concerning the day of resurrection and what glory that will be (15:50-57) and how we should conduct ourselves until then (15:58). The resurrection is a central feature of salvation. Therefore we all need to be on the same page if we’re going to function as one.
Final Instructions
The last chapter of Paul’s correspondence to Corinth (16) Paul gives instructions about collections for the struggling church in Jerusalem. Even here there is a subtle reminder that there is only one church. “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Paul assures them he is planning on coming to Corinth but in the meantime Timothy and Apollos may come. The church in Corinth should receive them well—after all they are a verified part of the body. He concludes with commendation for three leaders from the church and sends greetings from churches in Asia.
But as a summary of everything he has said in the letter Paul gives his last admonition:
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. (16:13)
So what is the message of First Corinthians? Every believer is a gifted member of Christ’s one body and necessary for church health through holy and loving participation.
